memory_alphafandomcom-20200223-history
Booby Trap (episode)
While investigating a 1,000-year-old derelict ship, the Enterprise gets caught in the same booby trap that doomed the vessel a millennium ago. Summary While the is investigating the remains at Orelious IX, they discover a Promellian battle cruiser. When the away team returns, a Menthar booby trap begins to drain the power reserves of the Enterprise, which is unable to move, to create deadly radiation. LCDR La Forge tries to come up with a solution using the help of a holodeck recreation of Leah Brahms, the engineer who built the warp engines of the Enterprise. La Forge has the computer recreate the personality of Dr. Brahms (whom he falls in love with) to facilitate the interaction. The key to get moving lies in the time-differential between action and reaction, but to be quick enough, total control over the ship has to be turned over to the computer which, according to simulations, is unable to successfully escape the field. In the meantime, the others try to use information gathered from memory coils on the ancient Promellian ship to come up with a way to combat the problem. They discover that the asteroids have been booby-trapped with aceton assimilators. It is impossible to destroy the asteroids while they absorb the energy of the fired phasers. It turns out the Human brain will bring the final solution. Instead of trying to overpower the engines, a minimal energy boost and minimal thrusters were used to drift the ship clear from the booby-trapped field, while shutting down all non-essential systems. Captain Picard takes the conn and is successful in using the asteroid's gravitational field and the Enterprise's thrusters to catapult the Enterprise clear. Picard then orders the destruction of the ancient ship to prevent it from luring any more victims. Log Entries * [[Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), 2366#Mission to Orelious IX|Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), 2366]] * [[Captain's log, Cleponji|Captain's log, Cleponji]] Memorable Quotes "Uh oh..." "I beg your pardon Wesley" "Geordi had that big date with Christy tonight. He spent days putting together the perfect program. Looked like it ended kind of early" (brief glance at La Forge's depressed mood) "Uh oh..." : - Wesley and Data assessing La Forge's date that evening "It is exactly as they left it Number One, in the bottle." (dumbfounded looks from Data and Worf) "The ship in the bot– Oh, good Lord. Didn't anybody here build ships in bottles when they were boys?!" "I did not play with toys." "I was never a boy." (Picard sighs) "I did, sir." "(brief pause) Thank you, Mister O'Brien. Proceed." (Riker gives O'Brien "the look" after the transport.) "I did. I really did. Ships in bottles, great fun." : - Picard, Worf, Data and O'Brien "There ''were ghosts on board that old ship. One of them actually spoke to us." "''A friendly one, I hope." : - Picard, after listening to Galek Sar's message and William Riker "Always room at the bar for another broken heart.'" : - Guinan "I'm attracted to bald men." : - Guinan "Is it possible... that we've fallen into the same snare that killed them? A 1,000 year old booby-trap?" : - Picard "I'm not used to people questioning my judgment." "And I'm not used to dying!" : - Leah Brahms and La Forge "If we resist, we die. If we don't resist, we die." : - Riker "You have used the asteroid's gravitational pull as a slingshot. Excellent!" : - Data to Picard "I'm with you every day, Geordi. Every time you look at this engine you're looking at me. Every time you touch it, it's me." : - Leah Brahms (Holographic) Background Information Story and production *Initially Picard was to have been involved with the simulated Leah Brahms. Michael Piller recalled, "It just said to me, 'Picard should be on the bridge, not chatting with some woman.' I said to myself, 'It should be Geordi, because Geordi is in love with the ship and this is a story about a guy in love with his '57 Chevy.' That played into Geordi's character, who's always been a fumbling guy around women, but if he could just marry his car, he'd live happily ever after. He gets to create the personification of the woman who created the engine he loves. It's sort of a relationship between he and his Pontiac." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages) * In an early draft of the episode, Brahms was named Navid Daystrom and was intended to be a descendant of Doctor Richard Daystrom from . Unfortunately, the casting department did not realize that this would require a black actress to play the part until after Susan Gibney had been hired. At the suggestion of script coordinator Eric Stillwell, the character was renamed, but the Daystrom tie-in was kept by adding a line that she had graduated from the Daystrom Institute. (Star Trek Encyclopedia) *Originally the holodeck set was to have been a mockup of a warp engine, but time constraints forced the more limited set shown. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion) *The piece of music performed in La Forge's holodeck program is one of Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dances. Continuity *This is the first episode directed by Gabrielle Beaumont and the first episode directed by a woman. *In this episode, Guinan tells Geordi La Forge that she's always been attracted to bald men, because a bald man was once very kind to her. In , Captain Picard (on an away mission to the past), meets Guinan and takes care of her when she gets hurt. *Some of the graphics seen in Drafting Room 5 include a topographic map of Mintaka III from and a graphic from Doctor Paul Manheim's lab on Vandor IV in . *The model seen in the drafting room is shown with all three shuttlebay doors open (or missing). *In the episode , Picard makes reference to O'Brien's hobby of building model ships. Without revealing he was from the future, Picard says he read the notation in his Starfleet file. Reception * Peter Allan Fields commented, "To do a character story and blend it with science-fiction is that pinnacle we reach for and the one that comes to mind which I thought was marvelous was 'Booby Trap.' You couldn't have seen it on . As science-fiction it worked and it was full of character, full of humanity and full of life." (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages) Video and DVD releases *Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 27, . *UK re-release (three-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 3.2, . *As part of the TNG Season 3 DVD collection. Links and References Starring *Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard *Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker Also starring *LeVar Burton as Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge *Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf *Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi *Brent Spiner as Lieutenant Commander Data *Wil Wheaton as Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher Guest stars *Susan Gibney as Leah Brahms *Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien Special guest star *Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan Co-stars *Albert Hall as Galek Dar sic *Julie Warner as Christy Uncredited co-stars *Majel Barrett as computer voice *Guy Vardaman as Darien Wallace References 14th century AD; aceton assimilators; asteroid; Astral V Annex; battle cruiser; Bonaparte, Napoleon; booby trap; Chaya VII; Chaya system; Cleponji; Coco-no-no; crossbow; Daystrom Institute; dilithium crystal chamber; Drafting Room 5; Ferengi cargo ship; fungilli; fusion reactor; ; gypsy; Hungarian Rhapsody; hyronalin; image processor; inertial dampener; intermix ratio; Kavis Teke elusive maneuver; Lang cycle fusion engines; fusion reactor; Mars Station; mechanical clock; memory coil; Menthars; outpost; Orelious IX; Orelious system; Passive Lure stratagem; personal log; power transfer tunnel; Promellians; Promellian battle cruiser; radiation poisoning; Outpost Seran T-1; Theoretical Propulsion Group; Theoritical Propulsion log; three-dimensional chess; tricorder; Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards; violin; warp field generator |next= }} de:Die Energiefalle es:Booby Trap fr:Booby Trap it:Trappola spaziale (episodio) ja:TNG:メンサー星人の罠 nl:Booby Trap pl:Booby Trap Category:TNG episodes